The Moscow ministerial meeting in the framework of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum features top diplomats of Russia, Bahrein, Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Sudan

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. The Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum has become an important mechanism of strengthening security in the Middle East and North Africa, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"This is already the third session of the forum. The first two were held in Moscow and in Qatar," Lavrov said. "I want to especially welcome colleagues from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrein and Jordan - the LAS ‘trio’, the representative of Egypt and LAS secretary general. It is a pleasure that in addition to this mandatory format, the foreign ministers of Algeria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Oman also arrived today," he added.

"Thanks to our joint efforts, the forum has turned into an important mechanism of developing joint approaches to strengthening security in the Middle East and North Africa. Today these issues will be at the center of the discussion and will take the main spot in final documents that we will adopt later today," the foreign minister said.

Lavrov also said that apart from regional and international issues, there is bilateral agenda in trade and economic, humanitarian and cultural spheres.